


Cross-Purpose

by zeldadestry



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: 100_women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-31
Updated: 2007-05-31
Packaged: 2017-11-04 00:02:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/387427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeldadestry/pseuds/zeldadestry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You were always a coward."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cross-Purpose

**Author's Note:**

> prompt 53, 'daughter', for 100_women fanfic challenge

Bellatrix, huddled in a corner, naked and still. Andromeda waited, heart pounding, for any hint of motion, breath, life. She shivered, despite being wrapped in her thick, fur-lined cloak. “Bella. Bellatrix? Bella.” Her heart lifted when her sister began to stir. “It’s me, Bella. Andromeda, your sister. Do you remember?”

Bella’s head lifted just enough; two dark eyes were visible. They narrowed right before she moved.

No words for it, for what she became, uncurling from her embryonic state in the mud to reveal the goddess of her body.

Too tall, too long, each limb unfolding itself until she was completely unfurled. Andromeda gasped, gaped, the body was always breathtaking, even after innumerable sightings of it, even though so much of her flesh had wasted away. Bella placed a hand on her hip, surveyed her sister, enough disdain in her gaze to make even an emperor wither and drop his eyes. “Well, well, well,” she said, and a faint smile appeared. “What have we here? How good of you to come. I’d offer you a drink, but as you can see my accommodations are somewhat grim. They don’t even consider us worthy of a chamber pot, as you’ve probably noticed from the stench. I’m glad you chose today to visit. They cleaned my cell this morning.” Slipping off her coat, Andromeda mutely presented it. “How long has it been?” Bellatrix stalked towards the bars, tore the coat from Andromeda’s trembling hands and wrapped it around herself. The bars were set wider apart than Andromeda would have expected, almost wide enough for a person to slip through. She wanted to step back, but Bella was too quick, thrust her arms through and grabbed her around the waist, pulled her flush with her own cold body. “Give me some heat,” she murmured, sneaking her icy hands underneath the hem of Andromeda’s shirt.

Andromeda shuddered, repulsion or pleasure, she could not distinguish. “It’s been two years.”

“Two years?”

“Two years,” she repeated. Bella’s hands were moving, stroking her lower back, stealing the warmth from her body.

“Two years, and this is the first I’ve seen of you. Tell me, dear one. How do I look?”

Bella’s vanity held. Unlike Narcissa, she did not see beauty as a means to be adored and spoiled. She enjoyed it for the power it could wield. She would use anything she could as a weapon. “You look like yourself.”

“I’ll assume that’s a compliment and thank you for it. You aren’t brave enough to insult me, not when I’ve got you in my hands. Why are you here?”

“I’ve been worried.”

“Why?” Bella’s lips were at her ear. “You know what I think of you. Muggle lover. Blood traitor. If I were given my orders to end you, I’d gladly do it.”

“What wouldn’t you do, if _he_ ordered it?”

“You dare to talk of him, when you’re unworthy to even think of him, know his sacred name?”

“Let go of me.”

“No.”

Andromeda raised her wand, pointed the tip of it against Bella’s belly. “I won’t ask twice.”

Bella smirked, pulled away from the bars and wrapped the coat tighter around her. “You’re scared of me. You always were.”

“You’re not well.”

“No?”

“No.”

“I don’t know what I do, when I pledge myself to him, is that it? Am I mad, dear sister, is that really what you think?”

“Yes.”

“You were always a coward.”

“A coward?”

“Have you enjoyed pretending that you are the bravest and that’s why you ran away? But I’m sure you didn’t think of it as running away. You thought of it as getting out, didn’t you? You like to say: thank god I got away from all that. Well, my sweet, that is only your little delusion. Do you think that we admire you, we whom you left behind? Do you think we wish to follow in your bold footsteps, if only we had the nerve? Consider yourself wrong on all counts.”

She was ready and willing to argue. Her temper was slipping away from her control. But why was she here if all they were going to do was play the same roles, the same characters they had throughout their childhood together? Was she always going to pretend that she was the good girl, perfect and unstained? That was not why she was here. She was here for Bella’s sake, not her own. “I don’t want to talk about the past. Is there anything I can do for you? Anything you need?”

“You don’t understand. I have more here, in this filthy, cramped, stone square than you will ever have. I believe. I have a purpose.”

“As do I!”

“Spare me your whine. Don’t make that same excuse all women do, that you live for your child. Don’t blame the wee Mudblood for your weakness. I would like to see your little one, dear sister. I would like to steal her breath, her life, and discover how much of you remains after the loss.”

Andromeda stepped back and Bella followed, advancing, reaching her hands through the bars. “You wouldn’t.”

“Enjoy these days without me. Do not mourn or weep on my behalf. No one matters to me but him. I live to serve him, in any way I can.”

“You have ransomed your soul. How can you speak to me of such things?”

“You shouldn’t have come. Leave.” Bella watched as Andromeda fled, did all she could to make her sister a hated presence in her heart. Hate her, she must, she must hate her, despise the visit and all of Andromeda’s weak words. Yes, because if she remembered it like that, bitter and dwarfed, she might keep it. They would not sense it. They would not come to feed. She crouched back down in her corner, hid her face behind her hair, her hands, and she was not alone. She sat in the dark with the image of her sister, twisted it and mocked it as much as she could, muttered and screamed to trick them. And when she sensed them coming, felt the cold drifting towards her, she gave herself up to it, just for the briefest moment, she let herself feel it: two pale eyes and the bond of shared blood that no violence could ever fully rend.


End file.
